Mushroom Pizza with....

...tallegio cheese, fresh thyme and lots of garlic. I tried to recreate this circle of love from a prior visit to Mozza, a pizza restaurant in Los Angeles. I think I succeeded on some levels but the crust was nowhere near the quality of Mozza's. My dough was - shock horror - store bought, but it was from my local Whole Foods Market and it's by far the best store-bought pizza dough I have come across. Pick it up at the prepared foods area.

I used a mixture of chanterelle, oyster and maitake mushrooms. There was no sauce needed for the pizza as the base was just rubbed with a mixture of olive oil and garlic. This alone could pass as fantastic garlic bread or even cut into strips and rolled as bread sticks, but today it was pizza for dinner.

Once the dough was rubbed I sliced some thin strips of the tallegio and laid it on there. This Italian cheese has a strong aroma but the flavor is very mild and is one of my favorites. Next I sprinkled on the roughly chopped mushrooms, some sea salt and pepper. It was now ready for the oven where I had placed my pizza stone and  preheated it to 500 degrees
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The pizza took about 12 minutes to bake and it was really good. I would like the crust to have been thinner but I'm Scottish and not Italian so my dough throwing capabilities are a little scary/limited. I haven't had the stone for very long but I wish I had purchased one a long time ago...now I just need to find a larger one.

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